To approve changes to the service which permits charity shops to dispose of their waste free of charge at Herefordshire Council’s waste transfer stations.

Currently charity shops are provided with permits to tip which allow them to deposit waste at the council’s expense. The changes proposed would introduce a limit on the amount of waste deposited by charity shops at the council’s expense.

That:

the amended charity disposal policy at appendix 4, incorporating changes to limit the number of free deposits each charity shop organisation can make per year to between 12 and 48 in number, be approved, to be effective from 1 April 2018.

1.           Continue to provide unlimited free disposal or increased number of tips per annum to charity shop organisations

a.     This option has been rejected as it is open-ended with no maximum amount that each charity could request for free disposal. The disposal cost is borne by the council and disposal costs continue to increase year on year.

b.     This option does little to encourage charities from reusing low value items or recycling materials if there is a free disposal route open to them.

2.           Do not provide free disposal to charity shops and incentivise reuse by payment of reuse credits.

a.     This option was rejected as responses to consultation suggested that a reuse credit scheme would be onerous for charity shops to administer. It would also place a greater administrative burden on the council to audit charity shops and process reuse credit claims.